Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER SR.


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, by                    
First Line: All earth is a poet
Last Line: Of the munificent ear.
Subject(s): Swinburne, Algernon Charles (1837-1909)


All earth is a poet,
All nature doth know it,
Each firefly doth show it,
Each frost work doth rhyme.
Poor man who the fool is,
And prone as the pool is,
May yet learn God's rule is:
All prose is part crime.

The dust that we tread in,
The swirls we are sped in,
The throes we are wed in,
Were dust, dust and dust.
If out of God's treasure
There came not a measure
Of rhythmical pleasure
In sibilant trust.

Thy gift was a yearning
That paradised learning,
And ended in turning
All seasons to Junes
Through death that caresses,
Through hatred that blesses,
And love that distresses,
And words that are tunes.

A Milton may ghoul us,
A Shakespeare may rule us,
A Wordsworth may school us,
A Tennyson cheer;
But thine is the glory,
Star-sprung from the hoary,
Flame-dependent story
Of the munificent ear.





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